MUST YOU WEAR THE OCHRE CLOTH AND DISGRACE YOURSELF, O SELF-SEEKING HOUSEHOLDER, O PRETENTIOUS SAGE OF MIGHTY LINEAGE?

MUST YOU WEAR THE OCHRE CLOTH AND DISGRACE YOURSELF, O SELF-SEEKING HOUSEHOLDER, O PRETENTIOUS SAGE OF MIGHTY LINEAGE?

Wearing an ochre-coloured kurta while in the midst of ochre-clad monks of the Mission may suit the vanity of someone but is inappropriate, to say the least, for one has to deserve through absolute renunciation this garb of the spiritual person, the garb of the beggar, as Swamiji used to say. Sri Ramakrishna disapproved of this donning of the saffron by householders and Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi advised the wearing of the white cloth instead by spiritual aspirants who as yet remained within the householder's habitual ambit.

Written by Sugata Bose